Drop Everything Now: Complete "Sparks Fly" Meaning

Sparks Fly (Taylor’s Version) is just as potent as the original 2010 release. What makes this song stand the test of time?

Taylor’s use of metaphor, alliteration, imagery and narrative devices are compelling, and make Sparks Fly a timeless bop that’s still a captivating listen.

She plays with the ideas of intense attraction, passion, and the thrilling yet risky nature of a new romantic relationship. And what’s the central metaphor? One of Taylor’s favorites: light and fire.

Let’s go through my complete analysis of Taylor’s Sparks Fly meaning and see what else we can glean from the lyrics.

Sparks Fly (Taylor’s Version)

Title: Sparks Fly (Taylor’s Version)
Track: 2, Fearless (Taylor’s Version)
Written By: Taylor Swift
Pen: Glitter (with maybe a bit of fountain)
Hidden Message: “Portland, Oregon”
Lyrics via Genius

Sparks Fly Narrative Breakdown

Setting: Taylor’s brain, all-consumed by her crush, imagining what could happen.
Characters: Narrator (Taylor), subject (“you”, her crush)
Mood: Excited, tempted, thrilling
Conflict: He might not reciprocate her feelings
Inciting Incident: Watching him move & smile: developing a crush.
Quest: Show him that they could have a passionate love, if he wants to.
Symbols & Metaphors: sparks, rainstorm, house of cards, rain, lights dimming
Theme: Good girl has a crush on a bad boy.
Imagery: “full-on rainstorm,” “get me with those green eyes,” “kiss me on the sidewalk,” “sparks fly whenever you smile”

What was the Secret Message in Sparks Fly?

The secret message on Sparks Fly was “Portland, Oregon.”

Taylor wrote Sparks Fly after she performed with her crush Jake Owen in a bar in Portland.

Who is Sparks Fly About?

This song is likely about Jake Owen, though Taylor has never confirmed nor denied this.

Taylor wrote and released the song on YouTube after her performance with Owen, and the original lyrics likely describe the bar setting of that night.

But moreover, Sparks Fly is about the spark of a crush, and the flame it can ignite within.

Sparks Fly Meaning: Line by Line

Annotated portions of Taylor Swift's "Sparks Fly" (Taylor's Version) on a purple background. Red English teacher's pen highlights hidden meanings, translates tricky phrases, and helps the reader understand the central message of the song.
The first verse lyrics read: "The way you move is like a full on rainstorm
And I'm a house of cards
You're the kind of reckless that should send me runnin'
But I kinda know that I won't get far
And you stood there in front of me, just close enough to touch
Close enough to hope you couldn't see what I was thinkin' of"

We open with one of the best similes Taylor has ever written: “The way you move is like a full on rainstorm.” This captures the chaotic nature of this relationship by saying so little.

You can imagine it in your mind the moment you hear the lyric: he sweeps in, soaking everything in a torrent, and then blows right out of her life again.

“And I’m a house of cards,” she says, no match for his epic storm. She’s fragile, and delicate, and there’s no way a house of cards can stand up to the torrents of rain he’s about to gush forth over her life and her heart.

“You’re the kind of reckless that should send me runnin’,” she says of his chaotic “bad boy” nature, “But I kinda know that I won’t get far.” She sees the red flags: this person is bad for her. But she can’t help being enthralled with him.

“And you stood there in front of me, just close enough to touch,” she says of their encounter. He’s so close, yet so far away. She thinks of touching him, but knows it would lead her down a dangerous path.

He’s “Close enough to hope you couldn’t see what I was thinkin’ of,” she smiles. She’s got passion on her mind, and wants him badly. She hopes he can’t read her mind, because – like in Ready For It – “you should see the things we do” in her imagination.

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1st Chorus: “Drop Everything Now, Meet Me in the Pouring Rain”

The chorus describes what would happen if this imaginary romance could come to life.

“Drop everything now, meet me in the pouring rain,” she says, conjuring a cinematic scene. The two lovers would rush toward each other, ready for their first kiss. She metaphorically enters his “full on rainstorm,” surrendering to her feelings, soaked by his chaotic charisma.

“Kiss me on the sidewalk, take away the pain,” she imagines of this first kiss. It will either heal her somehow, or take away the “pain” of temptation.

Streets and sidewalks are a common setting in Taylor’s earlier albums: an everyday, pedestrian place made magical by romance. She uses similar sidewalk and street imagery in Fearless, Hey Stephen, and the previous track Mine.

“’Cause I see sparks fly whenever you smile,” she says, describing the chemistry between them, and the butterflies she feels when he smiles.

What exactly are the “sparks” that fly when she sees his charming grin? It could be one or all of the following:

Electric sparks, like the spark of attraction or chemistry
Fire, as in the fire of love
Flickers of danger, as in a spark that will set her alight and burn her down.

Initially, it just feels like she’s describing her crush as a “spark”, and imagines it could catch flame if they leaned into their feelings. But later on, we’ll learn that this fire could also burn out, or burn her down.

“Get me with those green eyes, baby, as the lights go down,” she says as the lights cinematically dim, his Cheshire cat eyes glowing in the dark. There’s a hint of danger in this imagery, but it’s also mysterious and alluring.

“Give me something that’ll haunt me when you’re not around,” she says of his glowing eyes, wishing he’d give her something memorable to recall later.

This is the first use of “haunting” on this album, and the ghostly imagery that it conjures is potent. This love is all-encompassing, and floats in the air, even when he’s not there.

But it can also come back to “haunt” her with regret if she doesn’t tread carefully.

Verse 2: “Forgets to Remind Me”

“My mind forgets to remind me you’re a bad idea,” she says in the second verse.

This is an oxymoron: your mind can’t both forget and remind you of something, and it’s used to illustrate her infatuation. The idea of him is totally all-encompassing for her, and she’s so deep in it that even her better angels are having a hard time keeping up.

“You touch me once and it’s really somethin’,” she says, electrified by his touch, “You find I’m even better than you imagined I would be.” She imagines that once they actually get together, to touch or do…other things…he’ll be just as obsessed with her as she is with him.

“I’m on my guard for the rest of the world,” she says of her emotional walls, “But with you, I know it’s no good.” Like in the previous track Mine, she’s able to let down her guard for him.

But in the context of not obeying the red flags of this “bad boy,” it also means she’s not protecting her heart. He could do a lot of damage, but at this point, she’s so infatuated that she doesn’t seem to care.

“And I could wait patiently,” she says, “but I really wish you would.” She doesn’t want to wait around: she wants him now. She just needs him to make the first move.

Bridge: “Like a Fireworks Show”

“I’ll run my fingers through your hair and watch the lights go wild,” she says in the bridge, imagining the moment when they can finally get together. She imagines that, like the sparks, the electricity between them will make the lights flicker.

But it’s also her internal lights – the light or spark of love – that will “go wild” when she finally gets to hold her man.

“Just keep on keepin’ your eyes on me,” she says, using a variant of the phrase “keep on keepin’ on.” That phrase means to keep going, even when the going gets tough. She wants him to keep his eyes on her, even though what they’re doing might be risky.

“It’s just wrong enough to make it feel right,” she says of this imagined naughty makeout session. This continues the “good girl falls for rebel boy” trope, that Taylor will use again and again in songs like But Daddy I Love Him, Question?, and many, many more.

“And lead me up the staircase,” she says, conjuring her fairytale moment, “won’t you whisper soft and slow?” He’ll lead her up to the bedroom, and that’s where the sparks will really fly as he whispers sweet nothings into her ear.

“I’m captivated by you, baby, like a fireworks show,” she says, the sparks finally showering over the night sky. But what else do fireworks do? Explode. Detonate.

This could be a euphemism, but it could also allude to the ever-present danger. This guy isn’t good for her, but she’s fallen for him anyway.

Outro: “The Sparks Fly”

The final chorus repeats, and she reiterates the same ideas: imagined cinematic movie kisses, her bad boy will rescue her and “take away the pain,” and she’ll be forever “haunted” by the ghost of his love.

“And the sparks fly,” she says in the outro, which kind of feels like they’ve finally gotten together. But it could also be her imagination running away with itself, picturing the moment where they finally kiss.

“Oh, baby, smile,” she says, asking to be haunted by his Cheshire cat grin and green, glowing eyes. This romance scares her, but in an alluring way.

“And the sparks fly,” she says in the final line, entirely carried away by her imagination.

Will the spark ever turn into a flame? We don’t get to find out. But it’s been a thrilling ride, and toes the line between danger and passion beautifully.

Sparks Fly Meaning: Final Thoughts

Overall, the song is about the thrilling, yet potentially risky, nature of a passionate relationship. As Taylor told us in the Speak Now prologue, it’s also an open letter containing things left unsaid.

Now that it’s no longer left unsaid, her crush undoubtedly knows how into him she was. But this song also reveals the risky and mysterious nature of an intense crush, and portrays all those tricky emotions with incredible imagery, similes and metaphors.

We can see how much Taylor’s songwriting developed between Fearless and Speak Now, and we’ll continue to see her growing as a songwriter and musician throughout this song and this record.

In the Taylor’s Version prologue, she told us that “this period of time was so vibrantly aglow with the last light of the setting sun of my childhood,” and we can see all those sparks beautifully glowing in the darkest dark in Sparks Fly.

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